1. Field of the Disclosed Embodiments
This disclosure is directed to a unique set of structural features for concealing self-powered sensor and communication devices in aesthetically neutral, or camouflaged, packages that include energy harvesting systems that provide autonomous electrical power to sensors, and data processing and wireless communication components in portable, self-contained packages. Color-matched, image-matched and/or texture-matched optical layers, which provide an essentially same appearance from any viewing angle, and provide superior light transmission across the range of light impingement angles, are formed over energy harvesting components, including photovoltaic components, and sensor components, in the packages, the energy harvesting components self-powering the packages.
2. Related Art
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/006,143 (the 143 application), entitled “Systems and Methods for Producing Laminates, Layers and Coatings Including Elements for Scattering and Passing Selective Wavelengths of Electromagnetic Energy,” and Ser. No. 15/006,145 (the 145 application), entitled “Systems and Methods for Producing Objects Incorporating Selective Electromagnetic Energy Scattering Layers, Laminates and Coatings,” each of which was filed on Jan. 26, 2016 and the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, describe structures for forming selectably energy transmissive layers and certain real world use cases in which those layers may be particularly advantageously employed.
The 143 and 145 applications note that, in recent years, the fields of energy harvesting and ambient energy collection have gained significantly increased interest. Photovoltaic (PV) cell layers and other photocell layers, including thin film PV-type (TFPV) material layers, are advantageously employed on outer surfaces of particular structures to convert ambient light to electricity.
Significant drawbacks to wider proliferation of photocells used in a number of potentially beneficial operating or employment scenarios are that the installations, in many instances, unacceptably adversely affect the aesthetics of the structures, objects or host substrate surfaces on which the PV layers are mounted for use. PV layers typically must be generally visible, and the visual appearance of the PV layers themselves cannot be significantly altered from the comparatively dark greyscale to black presentations provided by the facial surfaces without rendering the layers significantly less efficient, substantially degrading their operation. Presence of photocells and PV layers in most installations is, therefore, easily visually distinguishable, often in an unacceptably distracting, or appearance degrading, manner. Based on these drawbacks and/or limitations, inclusion of photocell arrays, and even sophisticated TFPV material layers, is often avoided in many installations, or in association with many structures, objects or products that may otherwise benefit from the electrical energy harvesting capacity provided by these layers. PV layer installations are often shunned as unacceptable visual detractors or distractors adversely affecting the appearance or ornamental design of the structures, objects or products.
The last several decades have seen an expansive proliferation in all manner of self-powered (read “battery-powered”) devices. Developmental efforts are particularly evident in the introduction and use of remote battery-powered sensors and sensor arrays in commercial, industrial, military and security settings for such functions as personnel and/or asset tracking, intrusion detection and all manner of surveillance tasking.
In many commercial, asset tracking, security and operation employment scenarios, the use of batteries has its limitations. “Right sizing” the batteries for a particular surveillance and tracking package result in operationally trading off certain surveillance, sensor, tracking and/or communication capabilities for field-deployable packages in an effort to limit the power drain on the batteries sized for a particular use.
Another drawback, particularly in covert surveillance scenarios, is that even the best batteries will, at some point, need to be changed. There are operating circumstances in which changing batteries is either unacceptable, or impossible. Surveillance and tracking sensors go blind when the batteries deplete, and the packages in which the sensors are housed are, thereby, rendered useless.
Battery technologies continue to improve and efficiencies in sensors and communication components mitigate the power drain in the batteries. Nevertheless, there remain finite limits to battery capacity. Also, the typical chemical residue as a battery depletes may be detectable with appropriate detection resources. Combining these disadvantages with the drawbacks in applying conventional environmental energy harvesting for re-charging the batteries given the identified shortfalls in the use of conventional photovoltaic elements for the reasons enumerated above, leads to a conclusion that, while all of the component elements appear to exist, there is no currently-available solution to economically address the combination of apparent shortfalls across a broad spectrum of employment scenarios.
There are ongoing efforts to reduce power needs of sensors, processors and other electronics components that attempt to address power consumption issues. Generally, however, these efforts remain “battery-centric,” with an objective of reducing battery depletion rates, but not with eliminating batteries altogether. Efforts at battery elimination, even as new low-energy communications protocols/standards are being developed specifically for “batteryless” wireless nodes, are stalled based on a lack of an ability to hide batteryless wireless nodes. The efforts are hamstrung with the inability to be divorced from conventional photovoltaic elements. Put another way, there is no aesthetically neutral, or aesthetically pleasing manner by which to present the nodes, particularly in residential, and retail, office, and other commercial environments.
In this regard, the formidable challenges associated with the massive logistics effort involved in changing/maintaining batteries in large wireless sensor/security/safety networks remain. These challenges adversely impact all manner of technologic innovation. For example, consider that industry estimates suggest that, based on the number of powered nodes that are anticipated to populate the Internet of Things (IoT), as envisioned, in the comparatively near future, and even if a battery lasts for ten years, something well in excess of 250 million batteries per day will need to be changed in order to keep the network running. Those estimates are conservative and they drive not only the efforts to reduce the overall load on batteries as a whole but also efforts to find battery replacements. The lack of an effective power sourcing scheme to support the broad expansion that the IoT may enjoy is cited as a major factor slowing the adoption and proliferation of the IoT.